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Category Archives: teaching

It’s almost time for instrument-a-day month again, and I’m celebrating by doing a bunch of instrument-making workshops at NYC Resistor in Brooklyn. First up on Saturday February 5 (1-4pm) is Junk Electric Guitars: make a primitive–but loud!–electric guitar. Here’s video from a previous workshop:

Coming up later in February:Laser Whistles – Saturday, February 12, from 1-4 PM
Learn how to use the laser cutter by making wooden whistles, recorders, or ocarinas.Fun with Sensors – Saturday, February 19, from 1-3 PM
Assemble vibration, light, and magnetic sensors and use them to pick up hidden sounds from the environment and to hear objects and musical instruments in a new way.Handmade Electronic Noise – Saturday, February 26, from 1-4 PM
Make simple synthesizers and sequencers from dirt-cheap integrated circuits.

My Fun with Coils workshop at NYC Resistor is coming up – Saturday Feb. 13th from 4-6pm. Mess around with coils to make custom instrument pickups, junkbox loudspeakers, secret transmitters, and more! You can sign up on eventbrite.

Noise Party! On Saturday the 15th I’m doing a family junk-music workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Make silly instruments and silly noises! Stick around for other cool events! More info at avam.org.Download poster

On July 30th I’ll be teaching a class at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, making electric guitars out of junk. Check out the etsy class listing to register for the class, or look at this post on Make.

“The electric guitar is a sophisticated and highly evolved instrument. But you can make your own out of a few bucks worth of junk and parts. Learn to wind your own guitar pickups and build them into a simple one- or two-string junk guitar with a surprisingly nice sound. Depending on your ambition and experience, you can make your junk guitar as simple or as sophisticated as you want, but everybody is guaranteed to go home with at least a fun twangy noisemaker.”